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When FPGAs are used for Computing and not Glue Logic

FPGA board vendors seem to be as plentiful as rain in April. They are everywhere. But, in looking at their products they seem to fall in line with my general observation of the FPGA IC vendors: historically glue logic solutions maturing into ASIC solutions. FPGA board solutions appear to be extensions of this same thought process. As such, in both industries, worldwide, market shares are extremely small when compared processing ICs and “computing” boards/systems. In fact, together they’re smaller than many single “processor IC” companies. Now, you could argue that processors have been around longer and so, have gained more traction, but I can’t help but wonder what would happen to the FPGA IC and FPGA board businesses if they were used for processing/computing instead of being relegated to glue logic applications.